1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a system and method of illuminating a display, and more particularly to a system and method of illuminating a display using backlighting and one or more reflecting elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) include micro mechanical elements, actuators, and electronics. Micromechanical elements may be created using deposition, etching, and/or other micromachining processes that etch away parts of substrates and/or deposited material layers or that add layers to form electrical and electromechanical devices. One type of MEMS device is called an interferometric modulator. An interferometric modulator may comprise a pair of conductive plates, one or both of which may be transparent and/or reflective in whole or part and capable of relative motion upon application of an appropriate electrical signal. One plate may comprise a stationary layer deposited on a substrate, the other plate may comprise a metallic membrane separated from the stationary layer by an air gap. Such devices have a wide range of applications, and it would be beneficial in the art to utilize and/or modify the characteristics of these types of devices so that their features can be exploited in improving existing products and creating new products that have not yet been developed.
For certain applications, interferometric modulator devices can be arranged in an array configuration to provide a display assembly having advantageous operational and performance characteristics. For example, these displays may have rich color characteristics as well as low power consumption.
Interferometric modulator devices in such displays operate by reflecting light and producing optical interference. Interferometric modulator arrays can operate by modulating ambient light reflected from the array. When ambient light is unavailable or insufficient, however, auxiliary lighting, such as provided by backlighting, is desirable. Thus, systems and methods for illuminating an interferometric modulator array are needed.